“The change of Coach brought drastic changes in the system of working and training,” the midfielder told Tuttosport.

“After two years, we were accustomed to Mourinho's methods. Then Benitez came along and we tried to explain to him that these drastic strength exercises had to way, but he wouldn't hear of it.

“He insisted on immediately diving into his training programme with weights and a marathon run until we collapsed. He was persistent.

“The result was we had 30 injuries in October. We beat every record with regards to injuries and it's because our muscles were on the verge of exploding. Each of us had at least two injuries on the go at once.”

Leonardo replaced Benitez on Christmas Eve, but he too has now left and Inter are tracking a new Coach.

“It's a shame our season started so badly, but we knew that would be the case right from the start. Unfortunately by the time Leonardo arrived in December we were already a long way behind the Serie A leaders, but we gave it our all to catch up and finish second.”